I thought I'd give all the PW fans a treat with a few pics of something I had in the shop for repair and servicing recently. This is quite a classy piece of work.

Gene

Magnificent One Minute Tourbillon cased in 18K Pink Gold

And it's 18K and steel, ratcheting, winding/setting key...

That is truly fantastic Gene, Thanks for sharing.

Not a great pic, but you can see everything.

Phillip,

I got sidetracked after posting the first 3 pics, but now I have some time for a few details. This is Clark #5, a handmade Tourbillon pocket watch, (totally from scratch), and was made by Gene Clark of Colorado during the 1990's. The 24K gilded movement is of Breguet styling and is KW,KS. It is a one minute Tourbillon, with a lever escapement, and it is 18,000 BPH. The three armed carriage is fitted with shock settings to protect the staff of the mono-metallic balance which is fitted with a Nivarox hairspring.

This spectacular piece has several very unique added features. The mainspring barrel is totally "flying". A hack mechanism with a castle wheel arrangement is used to stop or hack the entire carriage. And, also very fascinating is the regulator which has a screw to tweak the outer regulator or curb pin inward to advance the rate. This watch is quite capable of holding a rate of +/- 0.5 sec in 72 hours!

It was a real pleasure to work on something of this quality, especially considering the fact that it was completely made by a single American.

Gene

Fantastic watch. I'll bet I wasn't the only Clark sitting on the edge of his/her seat. Thanks for showing this watch to us.
John

That's a very interesting watch. Lovely workmanship. I am wondering how much "from scratch" the watch was made since that term is used loosely. For instance, very few people (if any) make their own hairsprings, mainsprings or jewels. Many watches that are called "custom ebauches" use stock balances, hairsprings, jewels, gear train, barrel and mainspring. The plates and sometimes the keyless works are designed and produced differently but many of the essentials are off-the-shelf parts.

Just wondering. I often refer to George Daniels book (but I haven't read it straight through, bad on me!) and I noticed a while ago his discussion on making mainsprings. I thought that would be crazy (but very cool) if someone was making their own mainsprings for a watch.

Hello Frank,

Well, this happens to be the genuine article. No "custom ebauches" or shortcuts here. If you save your "Bulletins", check out the August 1995 issue. This very watch appears on the front cover, and there are some closeup B&W photos in the same issue's associated article. There are additional articles about the Clark Tourbillons in the April 1988, April 1992, and December 1994 issues of "The Bulletin".

The mainspring in Clark's No. 4, (constant force escapement), was made by himself, but the rolling mill used to form the spring was never the same. In this particular watch, No. 5, the mainspring is of custom Swiss manufacture. Gene had a contact there, and he had them make several springs to his specifications. The spring in No. 5 is very thin but also very long, 39 inches. This watch will run for 60 hours. The hairsping is Nivarox, also of Swiss origin, but it was acquired as an unfitted spring. It was then shaped/formed, vibrated, colleted, and pinned by Clark.

Nearly all the jewels are of his own manufacture, as well as every wheel, pinion, screw, cock, plate, arbor, pivot, etc. This includes the dial, which is silver, and the gorgeous 18K pink gold case. He even did his own alloying of the pink gold prior to turning it into working stock, and every link in the ornate key chain was formed from wire he milled from some of that stock. Each link in the chain was formed one at a time. Note the square key hole for winding the watch. It goes all the way through to the bottom side of the barrel. Hand filed and stoned.

Gene outsourced the engraving to a well known engraver friend of his, but all the actual machine work and bleaching of the dial, and gilding of the movement was done by himself. The actual number of hours for construction escapes me now, but it was somewhere around 4000 hours.

Nope, this is the "real deal". As far as anyone knows, Gene is the only American to have ever made a tourbillon in the classic Breguet styling, and he clearly mastered the technique. He was a dear friend of mine and a generous mentor to all.

Gene

Thanks for that detailed reply Gene! Personally my own definition of "from scratch" doesn't include jewels, mainsprings or hairsprings. I also really don't think it's necessary to mine the ore and jewels and smelt the ore and start with natural rubies in the raw.

I don't understand what you mean by the hairspring being "shaped/formed", were you referring to the overcoil or did he did he get the spring "in-the-straight"? I also wonder, did he know what CGS number he was going to be ordering before the balance was made or did he wait until after? Unfortunately I don't have those issues of the Bulletin handy (in a box, among many boxes, packed four moves ago).

The watch is beautiful. In some way though I appreciate the fact that someone actually made their own tourbillon from scratch than the actual watch itself. Similar to the thought that I appreciate that there's an American flag on the moon, but the act of getting there to plant it (and getting back) is really the amazing part.

Gene, This may not be relevant at all, but The American Academy of Horology (or somesuch) in Denver gave their very first "hand Made" watch to Harry Truman

Was or is Mr. Clark in any way connected to that school? Also in comparison to this beautiful work of art and machinery by Clark, how much of the Truman Watch do you think was actually "made" by the school?

Frank and David,

Sorry for the confusion. No, I didn't mean to imply that the hairsprings were "in the straight". They were definitely "coiled" as they would come straight out of the factory. I probably should have just said "unpinned and uncolleted". By saying unshaped/unformed, I was just implying that the springs had not received any manipulation so as to form any over coil or other shaping. So, yes they they were coiled but totally "in the flat" from a side view perspective.

Gene never worried too much about CGS numbering when buying springs, and I'm pretty much the same way. Nivarox springs are so difficult to acquire that one takes any and everything that someone will sell. The ideal of course is to have a vast assortment, but you never seem to be able to acquire every size you'd like. We actually went together one time and bought 600 springs, but we still didn't end up getting some of the smaller, wrist sizes we would have liked.

Another, and most primary factor, was that he didn't necessarily know ahead of time what the spring requirements would actually be for a balance that he had not yet made. Obviously, this could be quite variable or "non-static". Gene was also a master at knowing what would be "pleasing to the eye", so one of his balances might look a certain way for eye appeal, but end up needing a heavier or lighter spring because of this. The type of metal used for the balance screws or potential timing weights obviously also determined a particular needed spring strength. So, basically he got the balance like he wanted it, and then proceeded to identify a proper spring from his own inventory of Nivarox, or sometimes Elinvar.

One thing that he always tried to impress upon me was that "this is your watch", so you can do anything you want...provided it will work properly. You are not locked into a set of specifications or blueprints. The most that I ever saw Gene have was some simple, freehand drawing he'd made of what he wanted a watch to end up looking like. This literally was sometimes drawn on a paper sack. The blueprints were all in his head and were definitely subject to "change orders". Amazing.

When I refer to his stipulation regarding "your watch", however, I don't mean to imply that one has unrestricted latitude in the design of a balance when it's going in a Tourbillon. One very important and sometimes overlooked factor regarding the Toubillon, is the "inertia" of the carriage. One has to keep in mind that all the weight of the carriage, balance, escapement, etc. is ultimately transmitted to the pallet or detent stone(s) and 'scape teeth. So...to constrain one's self a little it's best always remember that "lighter is probably better then heavier".

Just for what it's worth Frank, Gene did in fact make a few hairprings himself, but he was never satisfied with them so as to ever place one in a watch. Obviously, these were "steel" springs that he rolled out, coiled, and heat treated, but ultimately he knew from the start that he'd never put a "steel" spring in a fine watch anyway. I think he just did it to prove to himself that he could do it.

David, regarding your question about the Denver Academy, I don't believe Gene ever had any affiliation with them. If he did, he never mentioned it. Regarding the "Truman Watch", and the extent to which it was "hand made", I have to say I just don't know. I will say that the layout seems strangely familiar, but Frank is probably better equipped to speculate as to whether this watch was potentially ebauche, or not. I notice that the pillar plate appears to be engine turned, but equally of note is the fact that the bridges appear to only have some straight graining. Also notice that this graining is going in two different directions. That possibly denotes that a student may have done the graining, while overlooking the need for all the lines to go in one single direction. And, if it's not just a glitch in the photo, there doesn't appear to be any graining on the balance cock. Hard to say, but I'm inclined to guess that this may have been partially done as ebauche and finished/fitted at the school. Hopefully Frank can enlighten us.

Frank, I totally agree with your comparison of the red, white, and blue planted on the Moon. The amazing part of both these exercises is just plain "getting it done". I equate the engraving of USA on the 3rd wheel cock of this magnificent piece to the American flag planted on the lunar surface. I should note here that this is attainable my many of us, if not all. Gene received no formal training as a watchmaker. Like myself, he was totally self taught. We also shared the fact that we both "cut our teeth" long ago as custom gunsmiths having learned machine work, fitting/finishing, and polishing techniques on fine firearms.

Gene did travel once to Switzerland on a learning trip, but to my knowledge he was only there for possibly a couple of weeks. His accomplishments are an inspiration to us all to believe that we have it within each of us to achieve lofty goals.

Gene

Gene,

I can't really respond to all your post. The "in-the-straight" was just a watchmaker's joke, just my terrible sense of humor. I was very interested in your description of how the balance came together. I would imagine some people would have blueprints and have it completely designed and then make it to spec as a proto-type. Doing it the way Gene Clark did it sounds easier to me, but you're running the risk of not being able to use the diameter of spring that you want so it looks proportional. I suppose there was some trial and error. Thanks for all your other responses. Fascinating reading.


David,

The school, the American Academy, School of Horology was Orville Hagan's school. Orville started out a few blocks away from where I live here in Denver. The magazine he edited is now the magazine "Horological Times", the AWI publication. The last vestiges of the watchmaking school closed in 1982. I'm friends with one excellent watchmaker who went there and whose teacher was Archie Perkins, a well known watchmaker, who did an excellent book titled "The Watchmaker's Staking Tool". The watch in the picture reminds me of an Elgin. Do you have better pics? Here's a fun scan from 1950. Look at the bottom left of the image carefully.

Frank,

I hoped you were joking with the "in-the-straight" reference, but since I'm new around here I figured I'd better just politely explain myself. You know how it is these days in our "politically correct" world. In another venue, I was once called down for making a reference to "curb pins". You'd have thought I had induced a term from Mars into the discussion because the fellow wasn't familiar with the terminology.

Anyway, to your statement about "trial and error", you're correct. There's often quite a bit of that. However, keep in mind that you 'do' have some latitude, provided you've got that decent inventory of springs. The proportionality issue you mention is of major concern, but even there you've got 'some' latitude. We can all agree on the actual theoretical number of coils for a properly vibrated, hairspring, but that is to some degree a mathematical number that can easily be tweaked a little. Also keep in mind that one can tweak with turns/coil spacing, and provided you have the necessary height under the cock, or upper carriage in this case, a slightly taller spring can also be used. Without a doubt, "hairspringing" is, in and of itself, somewhat of an art as opposed to purely a scientific exercise. One might fit a spring that affords a proper 270 degrees in the excursion of a balance, but other needed requirements may not be met, eg. recoil rate or rate of return. This gets a little trickier when fitting a spring to a Tourbillon because of several factors, but mostly the "impulse" derived from it's particular escapement. Because of the weight of the carriage, and it's associated inertia, all "impulses" are not necessarily created equal.

Gene

Frank, maybe that plate design was the "student watch" that was part of the institute's course work. I pulled those pictures from the NAWCC slideshow on "president's time" or whatever they call it. They have about 70 or 80 pictures of Presidential timepieces, including a Breguet (I think) that George Washington had.

All I can say is that the watch is outstanding!

What a beauty! and to be able to work on these works of art is even better.

WOW!

Frank,
I too think that the student watch layout looks familiar, and also looks Elgin in origin.

Gene,
That Clark is beautiful. Thank you for sharing those pictures! It was nice to see that pocket watches, of fine quality, were still being made in the early 90's. It gives me hope of a resurgence of carry, not wearing, Ha-HA!
Seriously, I have only been collecting for about 2 years now, and I love to see all the different watches, especially the hand made kind.
Regards,

Glenn,

You're quite welcome, and yes, I even hope that there is a new era of hand made watches being produced in this country. I still carry one often, and I always have one running on the bench.

Gene

The Clark is fantastic. The Truman watch does look like it had its roots in an Elgin. The bow looks like Elgin's "Corsican" bow, so named because it supposedly was shaped like Napolean's hat. I likely am imagining it, but I suspect the movement was based on an Elgin Grade 543 (see below), which Elgin was producing while Truman was president.

Ethan,

I think you're on to something here. If I knew how to construct an 'overlay' in Photoshop, I'll bet it's a near perfect match. Even though the bridges are slightly different, that's a minor difference. The third wheel placement is within the barrel bridge, but the actual wheel train layout appears to be very close. Obviously, and depending on the actual production process and "rough" movement plate and bridge result, the upper third wheel pivot could easily end up in the train bridge where it exists in the Academy's bridge layout. The initial pointing and boring process of production would have likely been done with both bridges being "as one", and then the train bridge could be "parted off" in what ever shape and configuration that was desired at the time. It could either contain the upper third wheel pivot, or not.

Other strikingly similar characteristics are the "click" relief/recess in the barrel bridge, the actual shape of the click, balance cock, and even the pallet cock shape that is visible in both images.

We can certainly give the Academy the benefit of the doubt and assume that they possibly obtained a set of blueprints and worked from there. However, that would have involved a much more elaborate/expensive machining inventory that is generally beyond the scope of a school or adademy.

Gene